Malignaggi: ‘They did Golovkin DIRTY in first 2 Canelo fights’ 

By Boxing News - 03/29/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Paulie Malignaggi says the judges did Gennadiy Golovkin “dirty” in the first two fights with Canelo Alvarez by not giving him the victories. Malignaggi feels that GGG was robbed twice by the judges against Canelo in their first two fights, both of which took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Canelo and Golovkin are signed for a third fight on September 12 in Arlington, Texas, but it’s unknown at this point whether the fight will take place on that date.

The coronavirus could cause the postponement of the Canelo-GGG 3 fight, as well as Canelo’s unification match against WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. That fight doesn’t have a date yet, but it’s believed to be taking place in June if at all.

Malignaggi believes that Saunders CANNOT win on the scorecards against Canelo, and he views his chance of winning as not good. The fact that Canelo has agreed to fight Golovkin in September is further proof to Malignaggi that Saunders CAN’T win on the scorecards.

Saunders CAN’T win on scorecards against Canelo

“The Canelo-Golovkin 3, the fact that they signed it before the Saunders fight happened, it shows you that no matter what Saunders does, he’s going to get robbed,” said Malignaggi to Fighthype. “Canelo-Saunders is a good fight. Saunders can win that fight in our minds. I don’t think he can win on the scorecards, no.

“The fact that they just signed the Golovkin fight shows he’s not going to win on the scorecards. But I think the Golovkin fight is kind of far gone at this point. He’s a bit older and is looking older. Golovkin was a great fighter in his prime,” said Malignaggi.

As you can tell, Malignaggi has a jaded view on Canelo’s opponent Saunders being able to win a decision with the Nevada judges. If the judges give Canelo a controversial win, as many believe they did in BOTH of his fights against GGG, it’s going to hurt his popularity. What Malignaggi believes is that years from now, fans won’t know what happened in the two Canelo vs. Golovkin fights, and they’ll just go by the record.

Saunders will need to put on an impressive performance for him to win a decision against the popular fighter Canelo. But he knows what’s getting himself into, and he likely won’t be shocked if he doesn’t get his arm raised at the end.

Image: Malignaggi: 'They did Golovkin DIRTY in first 2 Canelo fights' 

Canelo will beat Golovkin for REAL this time 

“It’s just a case of a great younger fighter beats a great older fighter,” said Malignaggi of his prediction of Canelo beating Golovkin. “I think this time, Canelo will finally beat Golovkin for real. I didn’t think he beat him in either of the first two. Yeah, I think Canelo will beat Golovkin for real this time. I can see that happening [Canelo knocking out GGG].

“It’s an aging fighter in Golovkin. He’s not the same guy anymore. I think it’s really a shame, because they did him dirty in the first two fights, and history is not going to see that result. And then they’ll forget about the first two fights because Canelo stops him in the third fight.

“They’ll just remember the third fight. They won’t even remember that he [Golovkin] probably got robbed in the first two fights, you know? That’s the unforgiving way for you. That’s how we live, you know?” Malignaggi said about fans not being aware that Golovkin was robbed twice against Canelo.

The 38-year-old Golovkin looked like a shell of his former self against his last opponent Sergiy Derevyanchenko, and he just barely edged him last October in a decision win. Golovkin’s power was still just as good as it always has, but his ability to pull the trigger made the fight harder.

If Canelo is going to stop GGG, he’ll have to do it with body shots, given that those were the punches that bothered Golovkin the most against Sergiy.

Kovalev was beating Canelo – Malignaggi

“The performance was okay. He got the job done. You’ve got to give credit to the guy,” said Malignaggi on Canelo’s performance against Sergey Kovalev. “He got the job done against the former light heavyweight champion. Regardless of what you want to say about Kovalev about him being older or whatnot.

“I did think that Kovalev was winning the fight. Was he probably not winning it on the scorecards? 100 percent. Nobodies ever winning on the scorecards against Canelo. It was Floyd in his prime that barely won on the scorecards.

“I thought Kovalev was probably winning the fight, but he was fighting like a guy not to get hurt instead of the old Kovalev. That’s not Canelo’s fault. That was an aging fighter, and that’s usually what you become when you get older.

“You try and get in there and try and take less damage as opposed to when you’re young and you’re willing to take any kind of damage to get the job done. We noticed Kovalev’s age and mentality. Having said that, I thought he was winning,” said Malignaggi.

Kovalev did appear to have a small lead at the time Canelo stopped him in the 11th round last November. In the 11th, Kovalev backed up to the ropes, and Canelo was able to take advantage of the situation to knock him out. Kovalev looked nothing like the fighter he used to be earlier in his career, and that could be the reason why he was chosen.

Image: Malignaggi: 'They did Golovkin DIRTY in first 2 Canelo fights' 

Canelo has been growing as an adult

“I thought he was winning. I thought he was fighting a really smart fight, but credit to Canelo for catching up to him and getting him out of there. He moved up more weight classes in the last couple of years than he did when he was growing and was a teenager.

“You’re not growing as an adult. You’re growing as a teenager, but this guy is growing more as an adult than he was as a teenager. That’s a big difference. He went from light middleweight to light heavyweight,” said Malignaggi.

Canelo definitely looks A LOT more muscular now than he did in the first 12 years of his career. Beginning with Canelo’s first fight against Golovkin in September 2017, his physique became more muscular and resembled a bodybuilder with his shredded he became.

In Canelo’s last fight against Kovalev, he bulked up and looked massive, like a short light heavyweight. It could prove difficult for Canelo to take that weight off without it hurting him.

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